Nicola Simpson

Background

About Nicola Simpson

I’m an energetic people and change leader in the finance industry with extensive experience leading large teams across international markets including New Zealand, the Pacific, India and London to support customers, communities and our people. I bring a unique lens with more than a decade’s experience in HR leadership and 10 years in Operations and Frontline leadership roles including customer experience, governance, risk, customer journey, digital transformation and cultural change. As Head of HomeOwners, Solutions and Funds at the ANZ NZ Contact Centre, I lead ~400 bankers talking to thousands of customers a day to support their home lending, personal banking and investment needs. For 6 months I was seconded in a job swap opportunity to lead the HomeOwners and Insurance Product team. As the Head of HomeOwners and Insurance, I lead the strategic direction and performance of Home Loans for ANZ NZ, putting customers at the heart of our decisions and being responsible for the end to end customer experience & portfolio revenue and performance of the products. My team delivered strategic changes to grow market share in a highly competitive and regulated environment. Prior, I spent five years leading offshored teams in India and the Pacific. As Head of Lending Operations in the Pacific, I led the Pacific response for retail banking across 7 Pacific countries when COVID hit, quickly building teams and successfully developing the strategy to provide customers with financial support, bringing to it a financial, risk and regulatory lens. When Head of Customer Service Operations NZ based in Bangalore, India I led 350 people across 3 business units, driving alignment between the Bangalore and NZ teams and delivering consistency across the service centres. My offshore experience leading large teams built my resilience and cultural knowledge and I’m at home dealing with ambiguity and change with an ability to quickly pick up different concepts, products and evolving customer expectations. I’m a board director for a NZ sporting organisation and the local Intermediate school. I support workplace inclusion and have demonstrated this through establishing the ‘Forward’ employee inclusion group in India and NZ, using data and networks to improve outcomes for women at ANZ. I am a networker and a mentor, helping women build their careers, linking them to different opportunities and people. I love seeing their careers progress and help show that you can to balance family and professional goals and excel at both.